TOWIE Tommy Mallet reveals HEARTBREAKING incident that spurred him on to set up Mallet Shoes

Georgia Kousoulou and Tommy Mallet have been together since meeting on The Only Way Is Essex [Getty ]

Tommy Mallet and Georgia Kousoulou are known as TOWIE’s ‘power couple’, having remained consistently strong and united throughout the three years they’ve both been on the ITVBe show.

And their relationship isn’t the only thing they’ve made a huge success, with Tommy having his own very successful shoe business, Mallet Footwear, away from The Only Way Is Essex screens, and Georgia having her own clothing collection.

Revealing the reason he got into the shoe industry, Tommy, who now stocks his shoes in over 190 stores across the UK and counts Will.i.am as a fan, said: “When I was younger I went on holiday with my friend’s parents when I was 12, and I’m from Islington, not Essex, but there were some kids from Essex there and they all had designer clothes but we didn’t really have that as much.

“This kid humiliated me about my shoes and said ‘look at the state of that kid’s trainers’ and made me feel bad about myself.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘by the time I’m 18 I’m going to own hundreds of pairs of trainers’, and by that time I had about 400 pairs, and it just developed from there.”

The self-made businessman admits it’s not always easy running a business and starring on TOWIE, adding: “I’ve aged twenty years starting the business though. It’s not easy. It becomes a lifestyle, it’s not a job running your own business. I’m always designing – I’ve always got my iPad on me.”

When it comes to work and relationships, Tommy admits that it’s actually easier at the minute to keep the two separate – although it’s always an option in the future to collaborate with Georgia, saying: “Where work has taken over my life so much, we try to actually not talk about it [work].

“I’ve offered Georgia hundreds of times the opportunity to do a women’s ‘Miss Mallet’ range but I think she’s seen the stress and how many hours goes in, at the minute it’s not her. But it’s always an option.”

Georgia Kousoulou and Tommy Mallet have successful business ventures away from The Only Way Is Essex [Getty]

While his first love is fashion and his current aim is to have 400 stores, Tommy – who is reported to have a very impressive net worth – admits his priorities will change when he has kids, adding: “Property is always the end game.

“As much as I love footwear and fashion, it’s not easy – you have to be in different countries all the time, and when I start a family of course I want to still have the business but when I look to start something else it will be property development – I want to buy land and build on it in the next two years.”